CHAPTER XIV. 
THE PRINCIPAL TYPES OF HARDY EXOTIC FLOWERING 
PLANTS FOR THE WILD GARDEN. 
WHEREVER there is room, these plants should be at first 
grown in nursery beds to ensure a good supply. The number 
of nursery collections of hardy plants being now more numer- 
ous than they were a few years ago, getting the plants is not 
so difficult as it once was. The sources of supply are these 
nurseries ; seed houses, who have lists of hardy plant seeds— 
many kinds may be easily raised from seed; botanic gardens, 
in which many plants are grown that hitherto have not 
found a place in our gardens, and were not fitted for any 
mode of culture except that herein suggested; orchards and 
cottage gardens in pleasant country places may supply 
desirable things from time to time; and those who travel 
may bring seeds or roots of plants they meet with in cool, 
temperate, or mountain regions. Few plants, not free of 
growth and hardy in the British Islands without any atten- 
tion after planting, are included here :— 
Bear’s Breech, Acanthus,—Vigorous perennials with noble foli- 
age, mostly from Southern Europe. Long cast out of gardens, they are 
now beginning to receive more of the attention they deserve. In no 
position will they look better than carelessly planted here and there 
on the margin of a shrubbery or thicket, where the leaves of the 
Acanthus contrast well with those of the ordinary shrubs or herbaceous 
